Chapter 14 Cross #2
A kick to the chest will certainly cause bruising, but I know from my studies that it could cause other issues like bruised or broken ribs, collapsed lungs, or even a disruption to the heart’s rhythm.
Striding quickly to him, I grip his head between my hands before peering into his eyes.
“Are you okay, Ev?” He looks fine, mostly just irritated that I’m hovering.
I narrow my eyes. “Tell me what they did,” I grunt as I run my hand over his cheek before eyeing the bruising on his chest.
“Come on, Cross,” he whines, trying to evade both my question and probing hands. “I’m fine, really.” Groaning, he mutters, “I’ve gotta go. Your father sent me for water.”
I close my eyes for a second. “I know. I’ll do it in a little bit.
You need to head inside. Find Sixteen and tell her she needs to watch you until Nolan gets back.
You’re probably gonna be fine but tell her if she notices you foaming at the mouth or acting weird at all to come find me.
” He gives me an odd look, so I grab at his shoulder, squeezing.
“I’m joking, Ev.” I’m only comfortable letting him go because Sixteen has proven that she has enough medical knowledge that she won’t hesitate if something were to happen.
Staring Evren in the eye, I press my lips together. “Go.”
“Fine,” he huffs, then eyes Delilah as some sort of silent communication bounces between them that I can’t quite figure out. The second he jogs off, though, I immediately feel better. If something was truly wrong, he probably wouldn’t be running.
Now that I’m alone with Delilah, I drag in a few breaths and peer at her from under a hooded gaze, my heart twisting into knots inside my chest. Then suddenly, I’m overcome by the torrent of thoughts in my head, the agony of what I’ve done to her beating me up from the inside out.
I drop to my knees in the grass near her feet, hands diving into my hair as I will myself to calm.
I tied her to this tree. I fucking left her.
A wave of nausea surges from my stomach as the scene I’d been greeted by plays in my mind over and over again.
They had their motherfucking hands on her.
Who the fuck knows what they’d have done if I hadn’t shown up.
My teeth clamp together, molars grinding until I’m certain they’re pulverized.
A ragged whimper has my head shooting up, and my eyes lock on Delilah. She watches me warily, her beautiful body shaking, but her jaw tightens. “You can go now.”
My brows furrow, and I search her eyes, trying to figure out what’s going on in her head.
“I’m not going. Not yet.” I swallow hard, standing up just as a blast of cold wind whips past. It’s getting cooler out here with every passing second.
The shiver that racks her body makes me want to do really stupid things like untie her and take her somewhere else.
But I know I can’t very well do that and get away with it. Not during daylight hours.
I turn, looking over my shoulder back toward the trees. There’s no sign of anyone. While working, it was easy to stay warm enough, but she’s been incapable of moving for hours upon hours now as the temperature has dropped and the wind has picked up.
Biting down hard on my lip, I nod to myself, then hurry to her. Those distrusting eyes follow every move I make, but knowing what she needs, I press my body to hers, anyway, skin to skin. The contact has us both gasping aloud. Fuuuck.
“Stop. What are you doing?” she heaves out, but all of her ire flees as she trembles against me, soaking in my body heat as I block the gusting wind.
Her chilled fingers find my waist, digging in as if she could bury them inside me.
I brace one hand on the trunk as she hides her face at the side of my neck.
Every breath I take, I’m reminded of the state of her as well as what we’ve forced her to endure.
It’s a miracle she’s still standing. “Do you want to tell me your version of what happened?” I angle my head so that I can see her face, and she shifts, craning her neck to look up at me.
Huffing, she closes her eyes against my stare, and that’s all the response I get. “Not talking to me, huh?”
Her head jerks in the negative right before she mutters, “Oh wait. Forgive me for assuming you’re an asshole like the rest of them. So, am I allowed to talk to you?”
Fuck, she has a mouth on her. “I’m not an asshole.
” I just act like one when it benefits me.
But I like that she isn’t shying away, despite everything.
“And yes. You can talk to me. If you want to.” From the corner of my eye, I notice something on the ground.
“Why is your food in the grass?” Fuck. I ease backward at her inhalation of breath and narrow my eyes as I study her.
“What’s going on?” She remains silent, so I grasp her jaw between my thumb and a few fingers. “Tell me,” I grind out.
She swallows hard. “No.” At her clipped response, I raise a brow, only to get glowered at in return. “Oh, whatever,” she gasps out, her voice raspy. “Don’t act like it’s weird that I wouldn’t trust you.”
“You can.” I scowl down at her.
“So, you’re telling me that after the way you treated me earlier that I should just change gears. Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t downshift that fast,” she bites out.
Downshift. Perplexed, I swallow, my mind mulling over her choice of words because it’s apparent that whatever she means, it’s supposed to be obvious to me. It’s not.
“You were awful to me. Awful. You’re giving me whiplash. Understand that?”
Oh. “Okay. Fair. You have no reason to believe me,” I murmur, shrugging. “I get it.” I lower my face to hers, and she flinches, eyes practically glowing with mistrust. “So, those dickheads came and messed with you?”
“They did. But—” She clams up again.
“Tell me.”
“Fine. But if I end up getting flogged or whatever over this, I’m blaming you.
” She exhales harshly. “Twenty-One. She dropped it on the ground before I could even take it from her. Evren showed up and gave me the canteen back, but I couldn’t tip it to my lips, so he helped me.
That’s what those two creeps interrupted.
And then—” Wild-eyed, she shakes her head.
“They made fun of him. I felt so bad.” She grimaces.
“I hope he’s okay. He was nice to me. He didn’t deserve that. ”
My brows crash together. “You haven’t eaten since breakfast.”
She makes a small impatient sound. “I didn’t get breakfast either. She spit in it.”
I blink a few times, cocking my head to the side, wondering if I heard her right.
“She doesn’t like me.”
I snort. “Clearly.” Digging into my pocket, I pull out the cloth that holds the snack I had brought down to the river, extracting a piece of the jerky. “Eat.”
Her eyes flick to my hand, and she presses her lips together. “I don’t want anything from you.”
But she’s hungry. I see it in her eyes. And where her hands were once warming against my skin, she’s clutching at me, almost as if she’s worried I’ll leave. Just then, her stomach growls. It’s as anxious as I am for her to stop being difficult. “Come on now, don’t be like that,” I whisper.
“Like what?” she huffs.
I hold the dried deer meat close, tapping it against her lip.
Her eyes close, and at first I think she’s going to go back to ignoring me, but a second later, she savagely snatches the chunk of jerky from between my fingers with her teeth.
Her blue-eyed gaze crashes with mine as it disappears into her mouth.
She blinks, chewing rapidly. “Do you have more?”
With a knowing smirk, I pull out another piece and feed it to her. We go on like that until all the jerky and most of the nuts have been consumed.
As she’s swallowing the last of it, my eyes are drawn to where my brother’s fingers left purple smudges behind on her flesh.
I stare at the marks, lifting a hand and brushing over them lightly with my fingertips.
“Fucking dickhead brother of mine.” I blink, gaze shifting to the redness at the base of her neck.
That’s damage we inflicted on her with that fucking collar. I grimace, my chest tightening.
“He’s your brother?” she whispers. “The devil’s spawn who choked me, I mean.” Hesitating, she searches my eyes. “But … I’m confused. I thought Finneas’s sons stayed with him last night while you were sent away with me.”
I nod, cocking my head to the side. “Yes. That’s all correct.”
Finally, a spark of understanding makes her eyes glow. “Oh. You and Dragan … you must only share a mother, then. Is that right?”
I nod, then press my lips together. “I have to go.”
Delilah’s gaze is pleading. “Don’t leave me here.”
Stepping away from her, I prop my hands on my hips. “I have to get that water down to the river, or they’ll send someone this way to find out what the holdup is.”
Her face crumples, and she shakes her head. “How long are they going to leave me here?” The question comes out quietly pathetic, and for that I don’t even blame her.
“I don’t know.” It’s the only answer I have.
Her misery crashes down on me like the thunder of a fallen tree in the forest. Lip trembling, she looks down at herself.
“I feel disgusting. And I’m tired.” She swallows hard, and I can tell by the way she keeps pressing her eyes closed she’s trying to stave off a fresh wash of tears that have come on at the thought that she might be out here for a long time yet. “And I’m cold.”
“Delilah”—a long exhale billows from between my lips—“hang in there. This can’t go on forever.
” I step close to her again, skimming a thumb over her cheekbone.
Thump. Thump, thump. As I pull away from her, the unsteady beat of my heart is nearly my undoing.
There’s nothing else I can do for her right now, and the regret I feel is staggering.
“You’ll be okay,” I whisper. No sooner have those words left my lips, than I cringe.
They’re ridiculous. I know it. She knows it.
Because the truth is … she might not be.